Teen returns home after losing eye in crash that killed pals

Published 11:20 am, Friday, July 8, 2016

BRIDGETON, N.J. (AP) — A 16-year-old girl who lost her eye in a post-prom car crash that killed two of her friends is home after more than a month in the hospital and multiple surgeries.

Zyiah Stocks returned to her Bridgeton home late last month following the May crash on state Route 49 in Maurice River Township, NJ.com reported (http://bit.ly/29zF5Pu). Zyiah suffered neck and wrist fractures. She also lost her right eye.

"Part of me wishes that it was just a dream," Stocks said. "That's how I cope with everything. I think of it as a dream and one day someone is going to wake me up and everything is going to be all good."

Police said Daisia Sulton, 17, lost control of her car and crashed into a tree. Sulton and Mikayla Mosley, 15, were killed. Zyiah Stocks and Jada Barriento, 17, were hospitalized. Barriento is undergoing physical therapy.

Zyiah, Mikayla and Daisia attended Bridgeton High School's prom hours earlier in Pittsgrove Township. Afterward, the three picked up Jada, grabbed some food and left around 2 a.m. for a beach house in Ocean City.

But when they got there, the gathering was over. So they headed back.

Zyiah had been asleep in the back seat of the car and wasn't wearing a seat belt. Doctors later told her mother that Zyiah was thrown into the front seat during the crash.

Zyiah said she still expects to receive text messages from Mikayla and Daisia.

"I take it day by day," she said. "It's not one day that I don't think about them. I had to stop questioning myself or blaming myself also. It's hard."